HOT Graphics Printing was established, under the name House of Typography, on North Lauderdale in 1200 sq. ft. of space. There were originally three founding partners who recognized the need for high-quality typesetting services to agencies, studios, and businesses, both large and small. We started out with two Monotype machines capable of setting four lines of type per minute.
We moved to North Second Street. In the pursuit of swiftness, additional efficiency, and to accommodate the increasing volume of business, the Linotype department was added.
House of Typography was providing our customers with type set by the photographic process. Phototype not only produced type of exceedingly high quality, it also enabled us to provide an exceptional variety of modern typefaces.
Robert Dawson (Bob) became sole owner of House of Typography. We moved to Jefferson Ave. 35mm slides were the up and coming thing for corporate presentations (before PowerPoint). Here we go into the slide business. For many years, House of Typography produced slides for clients throughout the South.
The decade of the 80s had hardly begun when House of Typography turned to still another generation of phototypesetting: “setting of type by COMPUTER.” By the last half of the 80s, desktop computers began to make an impact on the typesetting industry, House of Typography knew they couldn’t stand still.
House of Typography not only typeset jobs for customers, but we also began to print them. We started out with a small 2-color Hamada and a 2-color 26″ Komori.
It was a busy year. Our name changed to HOT Graphics & Printing, Inc. to better represent the complete service we now provided for our customers. We also moved to our current location on Elmore Rd. At this time, we purchased a 26″ 4-color Komori, and started offering full-service bindery. We have been growing ever since!
In our quest to better serve our customers, we diversified into mailing. We saw a need to help our customers get their direct mail into the mail stream faster, so we added a data processing department which included black and white laser printers, inkjet addressing and tabbing equipment, to handle our customers mailing requirements in-house.
By this time, we had already traded in our 26″ 4-color for a 28″ 6-color press with coater. We added 2 additional 40″ presses (a 5 color and a 6 color with coater) and made two additions to our current location to accommodate our growth.
We purchased our 6-color and 10-color 40″ Mitsubishi presses. This purchase gave us the capabilities to perfect 5 over 5, print with UV inks and aqueous or UV coating. The addition of the 10-color press required yet another expansion to our building for a total of 33,000 sq. ft. plus off-site warehouse space. We also rebranded and changed our name to HOT Graphics Printing, Inc.
Once again, we saw a need to grow. In January 2015, we began offering wide format printing. Printing with UV inks on a variety of substrates. We also installed a large format flatbed cutter, to cut irregular shapes, along with a laminating machine to enhance our wide format offerings.
In 2016, we installed a new inkjet, folding and gluing line, which we named Maverick. With Maverick, we were able to produce a more personalized, unique piece by inkjetting, folding and gluing in one single pass, with UV curing for instant ink drying.
2017 was another major turning point for us. Bob, our founder, passed away. The leadership of the company was passed to his wife Peggy (Chairman of the Board), his daughters Lynn (President), and Kathy (Secretary), and his grandson Danny (General Manager).
In 2019, we installed an HP Indigo 12000 digital press. This press allowed us to start printing up to 2000 press sheets per hour, with each sheet completely different. It is great for our direct mail printing, short-run books and posters. This press prints with CMYK, HP Indigo Orange, HP Indigo Violet and White ink.
HOT Graphics Printing, Inc.
5241 Elmore Road
Memphis, TN 38134
901-387-1717
hot@hot-graphics.com